Timar talks gunman into surrendering

Friday

Jul 25, 2014 at 8:46 AMJul 25, 2014 at 8:46 AM

By Christy Hart-HarrisTwitter: @ChristyTDRCOLDWATER — When Angela Timar left her Coldwater home for work Tuesday, she had no reason to believe it would be different than any typical day.The assistant manager at the Lion's Den Adult Superstore at 570 Jonesville Road arrived to open the store at 8 a.m. As she did on most workdays, she busied herself stocking the store's shelves with movies.Just before 10:30 a.m., Timar heard sirens outside. She walked toward the store entrance to see what all the noise was, and through the plate glass window of the door she saw police cars speeding off I-69 — and into the Lion's Den parking lot.Before she had time to figure out why the store lot was filling with police cruisers, a man ran into the store and Timar saw the police officers in the lot draw their weapons."I was thinking, 'Uh, something's going down,'" Timar said. "I saw (the man who ran into the store) grab his duffel bag before he ran into the store. He ran back out, locked the doors then came back in. He put his bag on the counter."Still not completely sure what was happening, Timar began a conversation with the man."I'm like, 'Apparently they're for you?' He said, 'yeah,'" she recalled. "I said, 'What did you do?' He said, 'I robbed a pharmacy.' I said, 'How did you rob a pharmacy?' and he said with a gun. And at that time his shirt lifted up and I saw the gun on his hip."At that time, the gunman, who was later identified as Joseph Leiffer, began taking handfuls of prescription pills he had stolen — oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid used to treat moderate to severe pain.Maintaining her cool, Timar, who noticed there was one customer in the store, told Leiffer she had to use the restroom; Leiffer said he did, too."I said, Why don't you go, then?'" Timar said. "He said no, and I was like, 'Why?' He said, 'Because if I go to the bathroom you two will leave and this will end badly," said Timar.Timar then attempted to reason with Leiffer."I walked over to the customer and was like, 'I'm sorry.' Then I'm like, 'Why don't you let this guy go?' and he said no. I said, 'You have to let this guy go and I'll stay. This is my store so let this guy go.' He let him go out of the back door and then he made me stay in the bathroom with him."By the time the customer left the store, Timar was on the phone with 911 dispatcher Janet Schwartz. The conversation was vague, as Timar did not want Leiffer to know with whom she was speaking.As the dispatcher asked Timar to explain the situation Timar told her, "I'm not going to go overboard because he could shoot me.""At that point in time I didn't know what was going to happen," Timar said. (Schwartz) was asking me to give her information like what (Leiffer) was wearing — but I wasn't going to do that; he was right there. It would have been too obvious."Once Timar and Leiffer came out of the bathroom, Leiffer could see what was going on outside via the cameras in the front of the building. He then instructed Timar to head to the back of the building where there were no cameras or windows."At first I thought, 'Oh God, something is going to happen,'" Timar said. "Then we went to the stock room and I started familiarizing myself with him. He was saying, 'This is going to end one of two ways. Either they're going to shoot me or I'm going to shoot myself.' I said, 'Not on my watch.' So I told him about my brother and I said, 'I can't go through that; you can't do that to me.' I said, 'Promise me you won't do that; I'll try to help you."Leiffer wasn't convinced, so Timar kept talking."I told him, 'It is what it is. You are already in this. Do you want to be seen in the papers as someone who couldn't handle it and shot themselves or someone who came out of it and did what needed to be done?'" said Timar.Leiffer confided in Timar that he had hurt his back three years prior and became addicted to the pain medication prescribed to him by his doctors — and that his addiction eventually spun out of control."I tried to make light of the situation, jokes, because that's what I knew to do," Timar said. "I just kept talking to him and said, 'You can get help.' He said he didn't mean for this to happen and the only reason he stopped at the Lion's Den is because he had been driving for so long and he just needed to stop and clear his head, to think."I just said, 'I don't know you but I'm going to do everything I can to help you. I know it's not about me but I can't handle this,'" Timar continued. "He told me I saved his life that I wasn't treating him like a psycho. I mean, people do drugs, they do bad things — it doesn't mean they are bad people."Throughout the two-and-a-half hour ordeal, Timar had sporadic contact with police and Schwartz."At one point I had (Leiffer) calmed down … of course, he was medicating this whole time, taking pills," Timar said. "Officer Nichols called and gave me his number. I told (Leiffer), 'We have to go out there. The longer we stay in here the worse it's going to get.' I was getting ready to call Officer Nichols to tell him we were coming out when the dispatch lady called back. Then (Leiffer) started wanting to kill himself again, so I said, 'If you're going to do what you say you're going to do you need to call your parents. They have the right to hear that you love them."Timar convinced Leiffer to contact his parents; he used Timar's cellular phone but his mother did not answer. His mother later returned the call with the help of central dispatch; Leiffer spoke with his mother and then with his father.Timar recalled that Leiffer became agitated and loud once his father was on the line."He started to get a little more irate and was pacing back and forth and rubbing his head and putting his hand on his gun and I'm like,'Oh, no … I'm really scared now,'" said Timar.Timar and central dispatch personnel agreed Leiffer's conversation with his father needed to end due to Leiffer's anger steadily increasing. They eventually convinced Leiffer to end the call."Then, all of a sudden (the police) got on the bullhorn outside and they said to get down because they were basically coming in," said Timar.Timar said Leiffer then walked out to the store area where he could see what was happening outside. Leiffer noticed the emergency support team and according to Timar he "freaked out."Leiffer instructed Timar to leave the store alone. Timar refused to leave because she was sure Leiffer would commit suicide if she did."I said, 'No. I know what you will do and you promised you wouldn't do that,'" Timar said. "Central dispatch called; (Leiffer) told them all the commotion outside was scaring me. I knew then he wasn't going to hurt me; this guy was just really confused and scared. He talked to the dispatch lady and told her he was going to go outside and smoke a cigarette. He asked her if I could come out with him, but they said no."Leiffer left his gun in the store and exited through the front double doors. The emergency support team quickly apprehended Leiffer and escorted him to their nearby vehicle. Once Timar exited the store, the police led Timar toward the side of the building past Leiffer."He was there and he was like, 'I just want to thank you and I hope what I did to you did not ruin you mentally … you saved my life,'" said Timar. "It made me feel good because I love to help people."Brent Timar, Angela's husband of nine years, found out his wife had been held hostage after she was released."I was at work and didn't have my phone on," he said. "A guy from another department came and told me. I thought he was joking at first but he was like, 'No … you need to call her now.' I called her and she picked up and she was already in the cop car. I was like, 'Thank God she's alright. She seemed more calm than I did. I felt like I was going to puke and my heart was racing."While she was being held in the store, Timar said Leiffer allowed her to make phone calls and to text friends and family."He kept saying, 'Tell them I'm not going to hurt you.' I don't know if he just had so much going on in his head that he didn't realize what was going on … I don't know," said Timar. "He's in a lot of trouble. I just feel like he got misguided. He didn't hurt anybody. Me of all people should be like, 'He should go to prison,' but I don't think that would do any good. He needs help. He could have hurt me … it could have gone another way ... but it didn't."The store manager of the Lion's Den, Candice Taylor, said, "(Timar) did a wonderful job. She's pretty amazing. No one could have done what she did. It wouldn't have turned out the way it did if it were anyone else."Michigan State Police Lt. Dave Wood said, "(Leiffer) told the dispatcher that the employee should be a counselor and that she helped him."Timar will return to work next week. She is looking forward to moving on with her life."I keep telling everyone, 'I'm OK, I'm OK,'" she said. "I never play the victim, I worry about everyone else and always want to help people. It didn't seem like it was that severe but I know now it was. I will never forget this … but I'll move on from it."